Rectory of Fernando Pessoa refuses new regulations without notice

A Fernando Pessoa University (UFP) refuses to introduce, without notice, new regulations on the transition from course to dental medicine, pointing out that it is assessing, individually and autonomously, situations that may have generated expectations in students.

In an explanation sent to the agency Lusa, signed by the dean of the UFP, Eugenio Campos Ferreira, following complaints from students who say they are faced with new rules that they did not know for change of course, the responsible ensures that “there is no question of a new requirement created now” by the university, “nor a recent change in the conditions of access or change to the Integrated Master’s in Dental Medicine”.

Recalling that in the case of applicants holding the French Baccalauréat, the possibility of using examinations of French secondary education in place of Portuguese entrance exams is regulated at national level by the National Commission for Access to Higher Education (CNAES), the rector described the correspondences between disciplines that this body requires.

For the school year 2025/2026, deliberation No 674/2025 of 22 May established, for France and the entrance test 02 – Biology and Geology, “correspondence with ‘Sciences de la Vie et de la Terre (SVT)– Terminale Bac Général’ [Sciences of Life and Earth]”.

For 2026/2027, Deliberation No 619/2026 of 28 May maintained this correspondence.

“ Thus, the issue is not the absence of the SVT discipline in the students' school course. In some of the cases concerned, the SVT was attended and assessed in the ‘Première’ class under ‘contrôle continu’. The legal question is different: whether this assessment satisfies the correspondence established by CNAES for the Portuguese proof of Biology and Geology, which expressly identifies SVT – Terminale Bac Général ", explained.

About 30 university students, most of them French, concentrated on Friday inside the UFP, in Porto, to obtain clarifications from the rectory who accuse of introducing new regulations on the transition from course to dental medicine without notice.

In statements to Lusa, Pierre (fictitious name for protection), 23 years old and university student, accused the institution of being deceiving him with false promises regarding the transition between courses.

A student in charge of education sent an e-mail to Lusa on October 2, advancing that “about 120 French students were being affected by the announced changes to the transition to the second year of Dental Medicine”.

In response to Lusa, the rector explained that, in the framework of an action to control the General Inspection of Education and Science, processes of students admitted by this university were identified in 2025/2026 “with respect to which it was necessary to individually review the legal and documentary conditions of access and entry”, namely “the requirement regarding foreign evidence that could replace Portuguese entrance tests was already the result of the national framework defined by CNAES”.

“ It is precisely in the context of the implementation of the IGEC Final Report that the university is carrying out individual review of these processes, reconstructing, on a case-by-case basis, the documents submitted, the evidence considered, the application note, the admission acts and the academic effects produced in the meantime,” he added, considering that “it is not strict to state that the students were only now informed of a new condition that did not exist when they enrolled.”.

According to the rectory, certain tickets made in 2025/2026 are now being reviewed for compliance with requirements that were already applicable that year.

Eugenio Campos Ferreira has advanced that UFP is “assessing, individually and autonomously, the situations in which there have been institutional communications or other elements that may have created expectations in students regarding their academic career”.

“ This assessment does not, however, waive compliance with the legal requirements for access,” he stressed.

On Friday it was also advanced to Lusa that a meeting would be taking place between a lawyer of students who say they are affected and the rectory of this institution, a meeting that the head of the UFP said he did not know.

“There was no meeting between the rectory or other UFP officials and a lawyer hired by the students mentioned today, nor are we aware of the holding of such a meeting. Consequently, there is no decision or resolution arising from a meeting with these characteristics”, the Rector concluded.